Joseph Fiscella: Week 6 at Suffolk County Vector Control

This week was an exciting mix of both tick and mosquito work. Monday and Friday were both spent collecting ticks, and we were out on the marshes collecting mosquito larvae Tuesday through Thursday. Monday was particularly enjoyable just because the interns and I visited a new tick site in Southhampton! We still mostly found lone star nymphs (Amblyomma americanum), but we did come across a small patch of deer tick larvae (Ixodes scapularis) as well as both an Asian longhorned adult and nymph (Haemaphysalis longicornis). With all of the ticks we've been looking at, I am able to identify the ticks in the field for the majority of the samples we collect. Specifically, it's the long palpi—sensory organs that help comprise a tick's mouthpiece—that distinguish the lone star ticks from the other species we find in the field. Whether from a dorsal (top) or ventral (bottom) view, the lone star ticks are easily identifiable. On the other hand, the Asian longhorned ticks, for example, have a distinctive point/curvature on their palpi, which is an important indication of their genus. The deer tick larvae are extremely small, but luckily one of my fellow interns brought a small pair of loupes to help identify smaller tick samples. Below are pictured 5 lone star nymphs caught on a lint roller, which is a much more efficient collection method than using tweezers! The 29 corresponds to the 29th transect on our grid that the ticks were sampled from, and the Q3 indicates that the ticks came from the 3rd quadrant on the 29th transect. We write down these numbers on the lint rollers to keep track of the ticks, making it easier for when we go back to the lab and confirm the counts that were recorded on the official data sheet. 

There were a few other highlights scattered throughout the week that are worth mentioning. On Wednesday, after an exhausting and hot few hours on the marsh, our entomologist on site took the team of interns and I out to lunch, and it was really nice to socialize with some of the staff here at SCVC! On Thursday, we had a bit of an untraditional day out in the field. We brought back some adult mosquito traps that had been out on Lake Ronkonkoma for several weeks, and we also laid out a new wooden bridge in East Islip to improve access to some of the areas of the marsh. The week ended with a very interesting virtual seminar on Friday, hosted by Dr. John-Paul Mutebi, who works for Miami-Dade Mosquito Control. It's hard to believe that my time at SCVC is over half way through, but I'm looking forward to continuing my work here for the next four weeks!





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